It's a model the CEO of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce says we can & should learn from---Grand River Transit.

The regional bus line serving Kitchener-Waterloo & Cambridge is an amalgam of 3 old transit systems.  In Niagara, Port Colborne mayor Vance Badawey is pushing a single bus system to serve this region.  He wants a plan in place by spring.

Eric Gillespie, a Niagara ex-pat, now Director of Transit Service for Waterloo calls Grand River Transit a success.  The number of rides on the service has more than doubled in the last decade to 20-million/year.

But the road there wasn't entirely smooth.  Gillespie admits there was controversy & community protectionism at play when consolidation talks started. He says it took a change of thinking, political leadership & perseverance to get to where the service is now.

Gillespie says Grand River Transit's is a collaborative framework that can handle disagreement & allows groups to come together to address their collective concern.

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Chamber CEO on-board with 1 Niagara transit system

Port Colborne mayor pushing for single bus service